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Chesapeake City sounded interesting so off we went the next morning motor sailing up the bay in 6 to 9 knot winds. It was pleasant albeit a bit sticky and hot as the temp climbed into the 90’s with humidity in the 70’s.
 
Then there was that darned catamaran that seemed to have a dead aim straight at us no matter how I altered course. #^&@%! Lo and behold, as we passed, we were enthusiastically greeted by Tommy Smith and crew!! Bonus! Undo the #^&@% and be delighted to meet such excellent friends on the journey – two days, two Annapolis friends.
 
Rest of the trip was more motoring than sailing due to a very light following wind that would have had us drifting along under 3 knots on wind alone. We arrived at Chesapeake City just in time to brace for another thunderstorm after having a bite to eat. Rained cats and dogs and of course our hatches leaked. Still working on that fix.

Been a while but finally all critical repairs are done. Itchy feet said to get moving even though there are still many boat projects in progress (we are only 2 months delayed from the original plan). Dashed out of Annapolis after getting our water topped up (since we can’t make water in the Chesapeake – too dirty). Was interesting hearing from long time Chesapeake dwellers about the water – clear to four or five feet – used to be in the water constantly. That was then. Now, rarely in the water – can only see about 6 inches. General consensus – farm fertilizer and city storm runoff is harming the echosystem. Don’t know about harming it, but changing it for sure. Lots of crabs and other life but very murky, especially after a storm.

In any case, we made a run for it about noon and arrived in Sillery Bay on the Magothy River about 4 after a leasurely sail (at about 3.5 knots).  We finally resorted to the motor as a thunderstorm swept toward us. As luck would have it, the big bad storm that threatened us petered out before arriving and a brand new one formed just east of us as we arrived. So lots of thunder, but just not on top of us.

On the beach of Dobbins Island in Sillery Bay when we arrived, many boats were enjoying the end of labor day with a party – finally dispersing as the light faded. All that was left was someone’s flip flops which Charlie and I discovered the next morning after kayaking to the beach for a romp.  But the big surprise in the morning was when we spotted Dan (first person we met at Liberty Marina) pulling anchor. What a blast. He allowed as how he was one of the boisterous party people the evening before with members of his family and friends. He grew up in this area and happily remembered winter times when the area froze and people would drive cars to the island across the ice for a slightly more frigid party, albeit I believe there was amply antifreeze for the blood in attendance. Delight to see Dan there.

Can you believe another month has passed by? Where has the time gone? For us it’s been a month on the hook near Liberty Marina in Edgewater, Maryland. Paul and Charlie spent 3 weeks without me while I drove across the country to visit friends and family and take care of stuff in BC. The main item being the sale of our car back to the Toyota dealer we bought it from. Peace Arch Toyota treated us well and gave us a fair price. Not only that but they were so understanding of our need and made the transition super easy.

So, what does a sailor do, when he no longer has a car? He buys folding bikes and a bike basket for the dog.

A few days ago we finally took the bikes ashore and ran our errands (banks, post office, grocery store, West Marine, and a treat at Starbucks). It took the better part of the morning for P to tune the bikes, then sort out the dog basket. We enjoyed the ride and Charlie figured it out, only getting excited and nearly jumping out when he recognized the grass near the marina when we returned.

Speaking of Charlie getting excited. Where we are anchored a lot of fishermen come to the little cove to catch crabs. Charlie keeps watch and barks at them when they get too close to the boat.

He also is determined to keep birds off the boat. The other day, a group of ducks were paddling by. Paul was at the stern pulling up the swim ladder at the time so Charlie was on the step next to him. The ducks came around the corner and Charlie got so excited he stepped into the water to chase them away. Thankfully Paul was able to grab him back onto the boat without having to go in. We are hoping Charlie has finally learned how to stay on board. Fingers crossed.

So I haven’t been keeping up with the blog. Why? Well it’s a long story, so here goes:

After two pleasant days of sailing up the Chesapeake we arrived at Liberty Marina, just south of Annapolis, June 1st and Paul immediately flew to Detroit to pick up our car from our son’s place in South Lyon, Michigan (check out Facebook – Garden Fort). He spent a day helping with a little gardening then drove the car back to Annapolis. Now that we have had the car again, the shopping began. I’ve managed to find myself some swimsuits, shorts, sundresses, tops, sunglasses and flip-flops (outrageous prices in the Caribbean kept me from buying much even if I did need it). Many of the clothes I took with me on our first season were too warm. I did manage to wear my hot-yoga clothes a lot though. I also filled up our pantry. Basically I’ve learned what we use and what we can stock up on while we have the convenience of a car. Anything heavy is a priority.

We also took advantage of being at a marina where we could have a few things shipped. So Amazon is doing a fair business with us at present. We also invested in a new cooler. It plugs in so we don’t have to buy ice and it can be set as a fridge or a freezer. We’ve been using it as a fridge for the past month, I don’t know how we lived without it. Our built in fridge is the size of a bar fridge and the freezer is a very small portion of it. Basically I can’t have much in the freezer once I make a little ice. So we’ve also placed an order for another small freezer which we’ll drop into our counter top. I will loose some cupboard space, but it will be wonderful to be able to take along more frozen fruit and veggies for those times when we don’t get to a store. We added a solar panel and have new batteries coming.

While we were on our passage we had some power issues in our master suite side of the boat. Basically we got nailed with a big wave, which woke me up by soaking me and the bed, and that followed with our lights beginning to flicker on and off. We assumed that somehow the water had also gotten in to the lighting wiring. We turned off our power and lived with flashlights until we arrived. Shortly after we arrived and were settled on the dock, Paul took down the ceiling to look at the problem with the lights and found many corroded wires. One big wave was not enough to corrode these wires, the water had been coming in longer than we were aware.

Upon investigation we discovered an area of about 8 feet where the caulking was broken between the hull and the deck of the boat under the rub rail. Paul tore apart the interior to get and better view and it became obvious that we had a hull deck separation that needed repair (with a gap greater than a quarter of an inch in some places allowing seawater to come into the boat when in big waves). We put in a claim through insurance, which came back as not covered as the surveyor pointed out it was a manufacturing defect. We contacted Lagoon and the hull warranty on our boat only goes 5 years, so no go there. We were on our own to fix it. Lagoon was helpful in having their designers provide us input on how best to do the repair resulting in a bond much stronger than the original factory. Then we got quotes, made a selection and last week the work was finally done (thanks very much for the great professional work of Osprey Marine Composites).

I could go into a lot of detail, but rather than bore you, lets just say it was a happy day when the repair was finished and I could sleep again knowing that no more water would be coming through. It’s just downright scary to think about it. This problem was likely cleverly covered up by previous owners as the insurance surveyor pointed out liberal use of silicone caulk which was not original but our purchase surveyor did not catch it. All I know is I’m confident that this part of the boat is now the strongest part of the boat.

Oh, we also visited Paul’s mom in Burlington when we first arrived. Then a few weeks later she was deemed unsafe to be in assisted living any longer and had to move to health care due to memory issues. So Paul went and helped move her along with his sister Linda. Then last week they called and said that a room had opened up in Memory Care, so Paul is there again today helping his sister Karen move her one more time.

So that’s why we’ve been on the dock for 2 months. And we were supposed to get rid of our car in June before we continued cruising. Well that hasn’t happened yet. So the plan is that we’ll move off the dock tomorrow, but anchor in a harbor right next to the marina. This way we can still receive the few packages that have yet to arrive. We can pay a nominal fee to continue to use their facilities while at anchor, so that will save some $$. Meanwhile, I (G) am going to drive the car back to BC visiting family and friends along the way. I’ll sell the car in BC and return to the boat in 3 weeks time. Paul will stay with the boat to work on various projects and take care of the dog.

I’ll ask Paul to post some pictures. Check back soon okay.

Sorry it’s a bit late getting this post done, however I must blame it on intermittent internet. We are now at Annapolis and have signed up for 1 month with Annapolis Wireless. While it’s inexpensive, it’s coverage is slower than high speed, so I’m hoping that I can get this posted without issue.

Here’s a brief outline of our passage.
May 15th – departure day, however we didn’t depart. We got our mainsail back by 11am, then Paul spent approximately 3-4 hours getting her reinstalled. I took the opportunity to finish deflating our kayak and SUP and stowing them away along with stowing other items that might go flying around the cabin should we experience rough seas. We went to the fuel dock around 5pm, and by 6pm we still had to get the motor off the dinghy for the trip. We were both tired and hungry. We decided that we needed a good meal and a good nights sleep before leaving. We headed over to the Fish’n Lime where we enjoyed a few glasses of wine and a delightful meal. Then back to the boat for one last evening in the BVI.
May 16th – Stowed the dinghy motor and got underway by 7:30am. Nice winds to start our passage. G’s shifts are 8-11 and 2-5, P’s are 11-2 and 5-8. Yes, that’s 3 hours sleep maximum for the next 10 days or so. Highlight was seeing a large ?MahiMahi jump along with many flying fish.
May 17th – Variable winds, looked okay to try our Parasailor. Unfortunately by the time we got it all rigged and ready to go the winds had died and we had to put it away for another day.
May 18th – Tried to use the parasailor again (it’s like a spinnaker, but with a parasail build into it). We kept screwing up the hookup. Decided we are too tired. It was a godsend as we went through a squall on my afternoon shift (G)
May 19th – Lighter winds, sailed mostly 4-5 knots all day. Clear skies at sunset allowed us to see the ‘Green Flash’.
May 20th – Mostly a windless day so we had to motor. Enjoyed some afternoon sun on the foredeck. Late afternoon, while P was asleep, I spotted a pod of False Killer Whales off our bow. I ran in to get the camera, they were gone when I came out. Charlie pointed them out again off our stern(pics to follow). This was also our one year anniversary for moving aboard the boat.

May 21st – Winds picked up. We are now more than 500 nautical miles into our trip.
May 22nd – South west winds today giving us a nice 8 knot sail. Gotta like that.
May 23rd – Dodged thunderstorms and gale force gusts all night. Neither of us got much rest. The boat looks like a disaster hit. We’ll clean up once the weather calms down and we catch up on our sleep.
May 24th – P spotted 6 dolphins off the bow this morning(pics to follow). Weather is looking favorable for the rest of the passage.

May 25th – entered the gulf stream at dawn. Needed to motor sail as winds were light to non-existent after we passed Cape Hatteras. The water is now more green than blue.
May 26th – 0059 docked at Blue Water Marina in Hampton, Virginia. Total distance 1516.2 non-stop nautical miles.

So when we departed we expected 4-5 days of motoring which turned into only 3 days. We can’t complain at all. We had great daily weather reports from Chris Parker, and chatted twice daily with other Salty Dawgs. We saw only a handful of boat traffic mostly nearer the US.

Glad to be back, but already looking forward to next fall when we head south again.